To Hold the Line
by YovanSchmitty
Summary: To prevent the enemy from ever reaching their last fortress, a single company of soldiers are sent on a suicide mission to hold the western road. Under the looming threat of a monstrous enemy, their only order is to hold the line, at all costs.


**Author's Note:**

Hello Everyone, this is YovanSchmitty.

Yes, yes, its good to meet all of you too...

Anyways, I just wanted you all to know that this story is a bit of a test run for me as I have never really written(typed) anything(stories(fanfiction)) before so I just wanted to release this bit out to the public to see if anyone liked it, whether it being the way I tell the story or, god forbid, the actual story itself. I consider myself having a somewhat good grammar, but if any of you notice any bad grammars just message me and I may fix it if I'm paying attention. (Ooh he's honest too! And incredibly handsome and witty!)(Oh internet, you certainly know how to make a gender ambiguous entity feel good about itself.) Anyway, before I go on a narcissistic spiral, this piece is ultimately a small part of a story that I have been thinking of lately, which is why there are no names, which I have yet to decide whether or not to actually type it up. So, if people(animals(Eldritch abominations)) actually enjoy this piece, I may release a chapter one. If not, then I'll probably just fade back into the mist.

So please, sit back, relax, and let your imagination bring you into this magically violent world.

* * *

I sat there and waited. Which is probably the worst part, the waiting. It sounds so cliched now that I think about it, but it's true, sitting letting your mind wander. I look down at my men, they are bloody and grim. I probably don't look any better myself though. I pick up the binoculars to scan across the field in front of us, nothing there yet. So I jump down into our trench and head towards my sergeant. A good man that I have had the honor of fighting alongside ever since I was transferred to this battalion.

"What do you think Sergeant?"

"You don't want to know Captain."

"Humor me."

He sighs, then looks out over the fortifications. "Well... We lost eight good soldiers last night, and our armor took a nasty hit, it's not going anywhere anytime soon." Pointing towards the center of our defense, "Our line is weak in the middle, and we are low on supplies... We never seem to be properly supplied!"

I straighten myself to full height, "Our Commander knows that we can hold this point, so this is where we will hold off the enemy."

"I believe in your judgement Captain, we'll repel the enemy for as long as it takes."

"Good... Now since it can't leave us anyways, I want our armor up front and reinforced in the trench. And I want those anti-air cannons moved up next to our armor. Those extra guns will give us some extra firepower against any ground targets." I lower my voice slightly, "The work will give the men something to take their minds off of what we're up against."

"Yes sir!"

That'll give us something, we could definitely use the guns on that armor for support, and those AA cannons should rip through most ground targets that give us trouble. This next skirmish is definitely going to hurt. We've held this position for two weeks, and in this short time, we've been hit by the enemy every day. Either by artillery, infantry charges, or by getting assaulted by those damn Monsters! They just come screaming in from the sky, pouring fire or lightning down upon our people, or they come charging through our lines ripping everything apart with their claws and teeth. Those unnatural creatures of war. That is what we must hold against, our enemy created these, things, to destroy us. Only our powerful war machines have given us the ability to hold our own, but every month, they have more Monsters to replace the ones that we've killed, while it can take days to replace one of our Leviathans. We can't continue like this, all that we have left is the Steel Bastion. Our largest fortress, the pride of our nation, no enemy has ever taken it. Built out of thousands of tons of reinforced concrete with armor plating, armed with the most advanced weapons systems our nation has produced, and with enough room to house twenty thousand people comfortably for a year. Now our armies have been pushed back to the cities surrounding Bastion and the citizens have been evacuated. These cities have been reduced to rubble under the constant bombardment and assaults. My regiment is currently holding the western road leading into Bastion, on the edge of the city, defending a pile of rubble. I head back towards the center of the line, grab a shovel, and start digging. How much longer can we last?

After a few hours we finished our work. I step aside to inspect our new fortifications. When we first dug in, we had the surrounding buildings with barbed wire and sandbags in the streets. By the end of the first week, the buildings had crumbled, leaving us with their mangled remains as our only sources of cover. Now we have concrete bunkers, reinforced trenches, one Leviathan in the center, and two medium anti-air positions on our armor's flanks. It was difficult, grabbing the large pieces of building to then drag them down to reinforce our bunkers and give some extra protection to the Leviathan, but hopefully, it'll give us a better chance when the bullets start flying over our heads. It is now only a matter of time until the next assault and we could only hope that we will make it through the night. What am I talking about, hope? Our fates were sealed the moment we set foot on this road. There was not a single thing that could have been done, even if we knew what was really lurking beyond our line.

"Enemy Sighted! Just over five kilometers out!"

I look up at the lookout position and ask, "How many?"

"Looks like a couple battalions of infantry, several Hound packs... There's something behind them... I can't make it out sir!"

I turn towards the nearest officer, "Lieutenent! Radio Headquarters, tell them we need eyes on the enemy. There's something new here, and we need to see what it is."

"Yes sir!" My lieutenant ducks into the command tent. He doesn't have much experience, but he makes it up with enthusiasm and a seemingly endless supply of morale. We could definitely use some morale. I didn't know much of his past, just that he was raised in the border territories. His small village was one of the first to be hit by Monsters, there's nothing left out there anymore. Maybe that's why he fights, but it doesn't matter now. We have a job to do, and we'll all die before we let them take this city.

It didn't take long for him to return, I can see the disappointment on his face, even as he tries to hide it. "Our request was denied Sir. Command can't afford to send out any birds just for them to get destroyed."

I nod, understanding the grim situation that we have all been forced into. We have approximately forty men, which are desperately low on supplies and are currently living in the debris of their homes, with little hope of support against a horde of monsters, men, and some unknown creature. _This war will be the death of all of us._

I quickly pull myself back together. I can't afford to be weak now, my men are relying on me to keep them alive. I have to keep my head straight. "Lieutenant, prepare your men and get everyone ready."

"We're going to die here, aren't we?"

I let out a sigh as I am reminded of our shattered morale. "Probably, but we have to keep as many of them as possible from getting through. We must hold the line here, for as long as we can."

"Well, we're all behind you. We'll keep those bastards out of Bastion, we have to."

"Lieutenant, they will never even reach the walls."

I watched as he went to tell the men. I could only turn my attention towards the front and wait for what was sure to be our end. We needed more supplies, more armor, more airpower, and more soldiers, I would have been happy for just a dozen or so sharpened sticks at this point. As I stood there looking through binoculars at the advancing enemy, _Why are we here?_ I need to get control of my thoughts, all they'll do is poison the rest of my mind. I know why we're here, we are the only soldiers available to hold them off. We are the only ones who can hold them off, a quarter million people are depending on us to keep them safe, we cannot fail.

"They're almost in range Captain!"

I look back towards the lookout station. _Time to get to work._ I grab my rifle, the newest model, and take my position in the trench. Most of my men carry the old rifle variant, it fires a single half-pound shell at four hundred meters per second, the new variant fires five quarter-pound shells rapidly down range by housing the shells in a rotating cylinder that can be manually rotated to load a new shell to fire. It doesn't hit the target as hard, but you can have more shells flying down range towards the target. A few of my soldiers are armed with light repeater cannons that can fire up to a hundred quarter-pound shells in just under a minute. Along with my officers' sidearm, which fires six half-inch rounds using a miniature version of my rifles loading mechanism, these weapons are all that we have to keep the enemy line from overwhelming our defenses.

I prepare my rifle, "Ready your weapons!" The enemy is eight hundred meters out.

"Take aim!" I grab a radio, "I want the Leviathan to aim for the largest concentrations and our cannons to cover the flanks."

"We're ready sir!"

The enemy reached the five hundred meter mark, "Riflemen, OPEN FIRE!"

The trenches were immediately filled with smoke as the ground in front of us exploded with the weight of our combined firepower. The enemy's line visibly thinned, but remained strong.

"Riflemen, ready your weapons! Repeaters, OPEN FIRE!"

While the rifle fire was a thunderclap, the repeaters were a monstrous roar! The constant fire of our cannons were ripping through their infantry, momentarily stalling their advance. Our armor chose that moment to open fire with its own cannons, engulfing the enemy line with explosions and flames. My men cheered as we watched our enemies burn, I felt relieved myself. At that moment we felt invincible, the enemy line was halted at four hundred meters and we still had enough ammunition to keep fighting if need be. They took multiple devastating hits, they couldn't have many soldiers left. We were wrong, a few minutes later, the ground shook as thousands of infantry and monsters charged towards our position.

"FIRE AT WILL!"

The noise was deafening, rifles launching heavy volleys, repeaters unloading their shells as fast as their weapons allowed, our armor throwing bombs, the anti-air cannons started to pour molten metal over the enemy's rapidly advancing ranks. Even through the constant noise, we heard the creature's roar. As I took a moment to reload, I looked up to see a giant creature heading straight towards my position. It had four tree trunk sized legs, a massive body covered in armored scales, with a huge soot stained head snarling. It was easily twenty feet tall and it was looking right at me.

I suddenly feel very small. I grab my officer, "Lieutenent, I want that 'thing' killed NOW!"

He rushes to the radio to transmit my orders as I raise my rifle, aiming at the demon's eyes, and fired. The first shell hit the armor, I fire a second. Hit the jaw, third, ear, forth, forehead, I couldn't slow it down! I take aim again and I see a thin crack forming on the monster's armor plating.

"Tell our armor to shoot it in its fucking face on my mark!" I fire my rifle, my last shell hitting the crack, breaking it open. I can see blood dripping down its face.

"MARK!" The Leviathan drills a shell into the creature's face, causing it to crash into the ground, face first, ten meters from my trench. _That was close._

I turn towards the far end of the line and watch as the trenches get engulfed in flames. I could hear the men screaming as they were burned alive while Hounds ripped apart the survivors. I look towards the nearby anti-air cannon as a Hound tears the crew to pieces. Checking my sidearm, I charge towards the crew as they try to defend themselves. Coming up onto the battlements I fire a few rounds into the head of the beast, ending its miserable life, and check the remaining members of the gun crew.

"Get this gun ready to fire, we have to hold this line!"

The men looked at me, worried, then immediately readied the cannon. "Its ready to fire Captain!"

We angle the cannon down towards our crushed flank, opening up on the enemy position. I emptied the entire magazine into the smoke filled trench, sweeping out any Hound, and showing mercy for the victims. I could no longer hear the screams. The crew then rearms the cannon as we aim towards our next target, firing into any large groups. This continues until a screech is heard from far above us, as a large bird drops from the sky, taking several hits from our other AA gun, and crashes into our Leviathan, tearing into it with its talons. We angle our cannon at the bird, firing what was left of our magazine into it, but we were too late. The Monster already poured fire into the armor, killing the poor crew, before dying on top of one of the turrets.

"Sir, our line is broken, we have to fall back and regroup."

I look at my remaining men. Their faces are covered in ash, blood, and sweat. Looking down into a broken piece of glass, I see that I don't look much better.

"You can all go if you want. I'm going to hold the line." I pick up a dropped rifle, checking the chamber.

Three of the four remaining crew members grab rifles and begin firing into the enemy formations. The last one takes a quick look around, shakes his head, and jumps to the nearest rifle to joins his comrades. I prepare to fire as I get launched to the side, severe pain lancing through my gut. As I slowly get to my feet, I spot a blur to my left and quickly leap to my right, dodging the Hound barely I roll to my feet, clutching my side. One of the gun crews turns to face me, aiming at the Hound, just as his head disapears. I aim my rifle at the dog, and fire at its face, killing it quickly. Dragging myself back to my original position, I am immediately knocked back as our line once again gets engulfed in flames. The rest of the gun crew boiling in front of me, the heat holding me back.

Looking through the fire, I see a new creature walking towards me, it doesn't notice the flames surrounding it. I slowly get back to my feet, readying my sidearm. I start limping towards it, our eyes never separating. It reminded me of a horse, covered in pure white, despite the ash and flames. It also had what appeared to be a disc of gold around it's torso. The Monster was the first to attack, charging forward. I fire my weapon at point blank range, hitting it in the side, but leaving no mark. It proceeded to charge at me, while beginning to glow with a blinding light. I leap using my good leg, diving to the side, barely avoiding the charge. Checking my weapon gives me no good news, two shots left, I just knew today was going to be a bad day.

Looking back towards my aggressor, I could see it staring into my eyes. It's stare was boring into my skull, it almost felt like I could feel it's eyes. I raise my gun, firing another slug at the creature. This time I noticed the slight shimmer in the air where my round was heading, which stopped my round. "What the fuck are you!"

_"The one that will end your pathetic life"_

I could feel the creature's voice reverberate through my skull, the power behind what generated it, immense, even causing me to stagger slightly. I grip a nearby piece of rebar to steady myself.

I start laughing to myself, "So, they finally got one of you to talk. That's a neat trick."

With speed that I have never before seen from any living being, it charged. I threw myself backwards, narrowly avoiding the monster as it rammed straight into the metal rod, slicing through it's neck. Limping towards the corpse of a fallen comrade, searching for a stronger weapon, I didn't notice the creature recovering from it's wounds.

_"You actually believe that a mere human could destroy me? I hold the power of creation! You are nothing but an INSECT!"_

"An insect with a big fucking rifle!" Wielding one of my soldiers rifles, barrel broken and torn in the middle, I fire. Just as an energy beam slams into my chest.

The beam launches me back into one of the many piles of ashes that were beginning to accumulate. The creature was not so fortunate, a warped barrel was not enough to stop the shell as it punched through, neither was the force field, which couldn't withstand the full impact. The creature was knocked back into the anti-air cannon. I slowly stand back up, coughing up bits of gunmetal and debris, placing my hand over the circle of burned flesh that was once my skin, muscle, and bone.

The sound of grinding metal alerted me to the Creature as it began to pick itself back up, so I slowly turned around and fired my last shot into the ammunition rack, detonating it. The blast vaporized the creature and I was once again knocked to the ground, pinned under debris, losing blood do to the piece of rebar that skewered me through the stomach. As I looked into the sky, I could hear the sounds of the battle dying down, until all that I could hear were the crackling fires and the smell of smoldering corpses. I could feel the life draining from my broken form, my limbs growing heavy, my breathing becoming labored and ragged. The last thing I remember is a bright flash of light, followed by a blistering wave of heat, as the enemy soldiers were sweeped away.

* * *

**Inside** a reinforced room under the Steel Bastion, a lone man sat in front of a wall of monitors displaying the ruins that were once the pride of the nation. Now the surrounding area was transformed into an ocean of super-heated glass, a result of the weapon that, until now, had never been fully tested. Another man in uniform enters the room, an uneasy look upon his face.

"Commander, sir?"

The Commander turned to speak to his subordinate, "Yes, Major?"

The Major wrung his hands nervously before responding, "The weapon was a success sir. All hostiles have been eliminated sir..."

The Commander stood to his full imposing height. "This is good news, is that all Major?"

Looking at the ground, "Sir... There were reports of skirmishes in and around the city, right before we used the weapon..."

"Go on."

The Major was growing more and more uneasy under the older man's gaze. "Well... I was just wondering if maybe we should sent out recovery teams to search for any survivors."

The Commander sat back down and turned back towards the monitors. _There are no survivors, there can't be._ He turns back toward his subordinate. "Send out four small teams, get them geared up for any possible encounter. You have one hour before Bastion's gates close for good. Am I clear?"

Snapping to attention, "Yes sir!" Before turning and rushing back to his men.

With the Commander once again alone with his wall of monitors, he was given time to think about the consequences for his actions. _If I am to be judged by my descendants, I have to save at least one life._

* * *

**End Note:**

So here we are, at the end. Now personally it felt way to short reading it, and at just under 3300 words, I am a little disappointed with myself. I know that I can do better! Anywho... So now I need to know what you all think, what did you like, what didn't you like. What would you have done differently, would you consider the depiction of the events to be accurate to what you saw or felt in that head of yours? Also, did anyone figure out what The Creature was? (The one that could speak) I feel that I made it obvious as to what it was, but was I too vague? By the way, none of the other creatures are actual "Pokemon", I kind of just made up vague descriptions to give you all something to imagine.

Well that's all of the homework that I have for you all, Yovan(or Schmitty(or Van(or Schmit(or even Yo!(actually not Yo, forget Yo))))) out!


End file.
